MediaMill: Hyperlocal data journalism

Abstract

The increasing reliance of government on data as a mechanism for transparency has led to a growing focus on the provision and use of public sector information that places a particular importance on the technical affordances of raw data known as open government data. Data journalism could be seen in part as a necessary response to this quantitative shift, placing a similar emphasis on the technical and analytical skills and resources required to continue journalism’s role in the process of representation. However, accountability and transparency are viewed as just one of a number of broader benefits of the process of making government data open to exploitation. This paper explores those issues in the context of local government and hyperlocal media in particular. It describes an emerging practice of hyperlocal data journalism that goes beyond traditional ideas of accountability and transparency to exploit the opportunities of social and economic innovation in a local context.